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10 July 2015

THE ART OF THE SELLABLE HEADLINE

Can you tell me? have you taken the time to think about a snappy answer to a question that we get asked all the time?

If you can then you have sellable headline for your company.

In business it can be the smallest most unimportant things that can make the difference:

There are many important assets a company needs but one that is so often over looked is the sellable headline.

The sellable headline is simple, short paragraph that describes your company and is very usefully for pitches, dinner parties, exhibitions and all those other "And what do you do?" moments. The Sellable headline is not to be confused with a strapline or a tagline, a slogan or a moto. Here are some instances of what a sellable headline is NOT:

And my personal favourite from a TV campaign about a million years ago;

RADIO RENTALS"You'll be glued to our sets not stuck with them".

Straplines and slogans etc can be temporary and for the purpose of an advertising campaign and helping customers to remember a brand. What we are discussing here is a short, pithy easy to understand description of your company.

FOR INSTANCE

My company is a digital agency and we design and build Internet based systems that can help companies in the defence industry to communicate better with their clients and with other business. Lovely but this doesn't get to the point and doesn't tell people what we do in a way that is easy to understand and quick to get across, our sellable headline therefor is;

OK not so pritty but it doesn't have to be this is not a slogan it not a catch phrase but in many ways more important, it includes what we do, the benefit, who should be interested in the service, where we're from and where we like to do business. We use this everywhere from our website to our business cards to email signatures, and without playing games and being clever, it makes it easy to understand, it doesn't make people feel stupid it just tells people what we do.

Being able to describe what you do seems like a simple thing until someone asks you to do it. But why does it matter?

WINNING THE PITCH

In the process of my job I have meet a lot of businesses old and new and it is imperative that I understand what the company does other wise how can my company build a website for instance that informs the visitor? Quite often it would be easy to come away from a client brief and be none-the-wiser as to what the company does. This is usually because the company owner knows the business inside out, they know them selfs exactly what the company does but just can't describe it a way that anyone else can understand. So in my case, if not careful it can lead to a poor website design, probably leading to a lot of work to put it right, or in a more extreme case not being able to get an angel invested, not winning the pitch for next stage of your business start-up development.

NOBODY APPRECIATES ME!

I have a friend who works in banking but beyond that no one, not even his wife knows what he does. The other evening he said to me that nobody appreciates what he dose, I told him it was because no one understood what he dose to be impressed by it, and he still couldn't tell me what he does : )

The sellable headline is a small thing to fix and perhaps for this reason no one really discuses it, it's not that important until it is critical.

SO HOW TO SORT YOUR SELLABLE HEADLINE

4 simple rules;

1. Who you are

2. What you are

3. The benefits

4. Where you are

So in the case of my company:

Who you are - Deshok website and digital design agency

What you are plus benefit - a specialist service for aerospace, defence and security

Where you are - U.K.

THIS IS IMPORTANT

This is worth thinking about and having it prepared in your mind for when it is need.

It can simply mean the difference between getting the deal or not. Unbelievably as small as it is, it can be that important. You can use it as much as including it on your business cards or as little as simply having it prepared, in the forefront of your mind; for when the interested ask... What does your business do?